


Bedtime

by AutisticWriter



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV), A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Queer Relationship, Cooking, Family, Ficlet, Fluff, Kissing, Mostly Gen, Multi, Pancakes, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 00:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14296425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: In which Charles wants the children to go to bed, but the children (and Sir) have other ideas.





	Bedtime

**Author's Note:**

> Set during an AU in which Charles and Sir adopt the children.

Walking into Violet’s bedroom, Charles expects to find his adoptive daughter sat at her desk, inventing things. Instead, he finds the room empty.

“Violet?” he calls.

But he gets no reply.

Confused, Charles wanders up and down the landing, looking for Violet. He knows that Violet likes to explore their large house, looking for things to invent with or just being generally inquisitive, but it isn’t like her to wander off when she was clearly in the middle of inventing something.

“Violet?”

Klaus’ bedroom is empty too. His heart starting to race, Charles hurries to the nursery. Three hours ago, he and Sir put Sunny to bed, so the youngest of their adoptive children should still be in her room. But when he enters the room, he finds the crib empty. Charles gasps – and then full-on panics.

“Sunny!” he calls, sweat coating his brow. The children have only been living with them for a month; he can’t have lost them already. Or maybe that evil Count Olaf has found them.

“Sunny! Klaus! Violet!”

Charles hurtles down the stairs, and is hit by a delicious smell. He runs into the kitchen, and that is where he finds them.

They are cooking.

“Seriously?” he says, voicing his thoughts.

After all of his worrying, all of his frantic searching, all of his fears about the children being kidnapped… they have just been cooking.

And what really throws him off is that Sir is with them. Sir, of all the people Charles knows, is probably the least likely person to cook. So why on Earth is Sir in the kitchen at 9pm (when Sunny should be in bed and the older two children should be settling down for bed) cooking pancakes with the Baudelaires? Charles stares at them all, confused by this sight.

“Ah, Charles,” Sir says, smiling when he sees Charles stood in the doorway. As always, since they adopted the children, Sir hasn’t smoked in the house, and is clearly chewing nicotine gum instead. “Good to see you.”

Charles raises his eyebrows. “Just what is going on here?”

“We’re making pancakes,” Violet says, tampering with the mechanical whisk. Beside her, Klaus weighs out flour on the scales, and Sunny sits on the counter, chewing a wooden spoon. Sir is over at the stove, cooking the pancakes in a frying pan. “Would you like one?”

Charles tries to hide his irritation, smiling at Violet. “If there is one to spare, then yes, that would be wonderful, darling.”

Sir frowns, turning to look at Charles. To Charles’ utter confusion, Sir is wearing an apron, the one with a cartoon of a dachshund on that Charles usually wears when he makes Sir omelettes.

“Is something the matter, Charles?”

“Well, yes, there is, actually,” Charles says. “There I was, thinking that the children (who should be in bed) had been abducted or something, when they’re actually with you, making pancakes!”

“You thought we had been abducted?” Klaus says. “But we have just been in the kitchen.”

“Yes, I was hungry so I went down to the kitchen,” Violet explains, putting down a screwdriver. “And I bumped into Sir, who was getting a glass of milk. We started talking about food, and I mentioned how Mother used to make wonderful pancakes, and Sir offered to show me his pancake making skills. So I went and got Klaus and Sunny, and we have been making pancakes since then.”

Charles blinks, staring at Violet. What she said makes sense, except for the face that Sir offered to cook. “I see. Since when do you cook, Sir?”

“Of course I can cook,” Sir says, raising an eyebrow. “I just usually leave it to you, because you’re much better at it than me.” He looks back at the frying pan, and flips the pancake with reasonable skill. “This one looks done. Would you like it, Charles?”

It is incredibly confusing to see his long term partner doing something domestic, and even more confusing to see someone as usually guarded as Sir being very paternal with their new children, and even more annoying than that to realise that all of his worrying was redundant… but Charles does rather like pancakes.

Reluctantly, he smiles. “Very well. But I think the children should go to bed soon.”

“Deal,” Klaus says, grinning.

Sir puts the pancake on a plate and hands it to Sir. And then he leans forwards and kisses Charles. He blushes at being kissed in front of the Baudelaires, and Charles can’t remember the last time Sir made any kind of public display of affection. Stuttering slightly, he thanks Sir and takes the plate, and sits down beside Violet. He sees the children smiling, and smiles back.

And as Charles pours maple syrup on his pancake, he has to wonder what life is going to like in the future. Having the children has changed Sir so much, and Charles hopes they can have a long, happy time together as a family.


End file.
